Boy have I been gone or what.  I can't believe I haven't writen.  I use to be so much better.  Of course it is summer and we are busy, busy, busy.  We have goats now and they are having kids and I am doing a little bit of milking.  Boy is it good stuff!  Of course I will be using some in my soap making also.  I hope to get some yogurt made tomorrow. 

As far as school goes, Jonathan has a little less than 30 lessons to go with his Headsprout Early Reading program.  He is doing better with reading and I think even starting to like it a little more. 

A friend from church came over the other day and we ordered our curriculum for this next season.  This will be her first year to homeschool her son.  I am so excited.  He is starting Kindergarden and is about a year older than Jonathan.  Our Math U See came in and we are waiting on Heart of Dakota set. 

Well, it is late and I am tired.  I hope to write more later this week.  We will see.  I want to add some baby goat pictures too.  :)

Whew!!  Where have I been?  I have been pretty busy lately so I have let my blogging get behind. 

We haven't been doing much in the way of school.  J is just doing Headsprout and is still enjoying it.  We reviewed some math today and he still remembers most of the math facts he has learned.  I want to keep working on stuff even thru the summer so he don't forget half of what he has already learned. 

J is really enjoying T-ball.  He is a natural! 

Ok, I think this is all for now.  I will share more pictures later.

I know it has been a few days or more...I am having a hard time thinking what to say so that it doesn't sound dumb.  I think I am having writers block or whatever it is.  LOL.

I don't remember if I blogged about what reading program I had been looking at.  It is www.headsprout.com.  I went ahead and purchased it.  I did the 3 free lesson trial and Jonathan just took right to it, asking to do it.  We finished Episode 5 today so he got to read the first book.  It is pretty simple compared to the "...100 ez Lessons".  And he still don't really have the desire to read it.  I am still working with him on other sounds from the EZ Lessons book and I bought a dry erase board for the fridge and we write words on there.  He had me writing a "story" that he told.  I thought that was good practice too.  He is using his brain at least.  Haha.

I am wanting to do some Sign Laungage lessons with him.  We have been looking stuff up in our SL book.  I think he will enjoy this. 

We are re-reading our Character building book.  We are going to read it more slowly this time and use the Bible to look up the scriptures that are reference. 

Today we planted some sweet banana pepper plants and one tomato plant.  This was enjoyable.  Wish I would have gotten some pictures but I didn't even think about it. 

Oh, we went garage selling over the weekend.  It was city wide and I found several books.  One is "The Pupose Driven Life" .  Another was the "More Natural Cures" by Kevin Tredeau.  I have the first one and thought it would be interesting to look thru this one.  I got another book, the one I am currently reading, it is called "A Mind at a Time" by Mel Levine, M.D.  It talks about the different ways children learn and and how they can success.  I will tell about it later as I read more.

I guess I better go help catch chickens.  They have been roosting on our porch and the rooster has been waking us up too early. 

I found this website, Starfall.  It is a reading program that is free.  Jonathan is enjoying it.  He was reading and even enjoying it.  I think it is a nice change from our regular reading program.  I am trying different things for him to read and see which he enjoys most.  I know he don't like sitting and reading for a long time so we haven't been doing the stories in the "...100 ez lessons" book.  We will go back to them later I guess.  I have been printing the words out on paper and he don't mind reading them that way.  I have put some on the fridge with magnet letters and when he sees them we sound them out and make sentences with the words.  I think he likes that too.  Anything to keep him interested and still learn. 

We are coming to the end of our Math U See Primer book.  We are learning to tell time.  He likes that.  He has been interested in time for a while and so he likes doing these pages and we also look at it on the clock and on a wooden play clock that he has. 

I haven't decided if I really want to take the whole summer off or what.  I really don't want to but don't know if I should continue on with the next book in MUS or just review for a while.  I will have to think on this.  I believe we will continue phonics and reading in a relaxed manner.  I don't want him to forget anything and there is so much to learn.

I am still thinking about using the Heart of Dakota curriculum for next year.  I like that it is biblical based and all planned out for me.  I wish I knew of others to look into but haven't found anything I like yet.  Any ideas?

At the Trade Days this weekend, I talked with the lady I met that homeschools.  She has 5 adopted children and homeschools them all.  She brought some of her books over that she uses.  They were nice but I don't think they are what I want to use.  It was nice talking to her though.  She told me I need to come visit her sometime and I think I will....

When I got home Sunday, I was fixing supper ( I had put soup on that morning) and my mom called.  She asked if I had remembered the Hamberger supper they were having at church.  Of course I had forgotten.  I went ahead and cooked the cornbread and then Jonathan and I went to eat burgers and fellowship.  I am so glad I did.  While there, a lady that I had talked to last year about homeschooling her boy came and talked to me.  She said she had been praying about what to do about starting her son in school.  She wanted to homeschool but just wasn't sure.  She had been praying about what to do.  We talked for a while and she said her burden was lifted and she knew she was going to homeschool.  That is so cool.  Her son is a year older that Jonathan but they will be in the same "grade" since she held her son back from kindergarden last year.  I do hope I can be of more help to her concerning curriculum and such. 

As for our school it has slowed down so much.  We were doing reading the other day and J wasn't doing as I wanted and I got on to him.  I was angry...I have found that we weren't having fun with this reading.  It has been this way since the beginning.  I seems like I am always getting onto him during reading mostly because he don't want to do it.  He is learning and able to read but he doesn't like to.  I decided it wasn't worth the trouble.  I don't want him to hate reading!  We are still going to work on sounds and such but it will be at a much slower pace and not so structured. 

Math:  He still likes math.  Speaking of which, we still need to do our math lesson.  LOL.  I guess I better get off here.

Tomorrow is Friday.  I have been so busy this week getting ready for the Trade Days.  I think I am just about ready.  I could have made a few more lip balms but I just don't have any more time.  Unless I want to stay up till ....well...tomorrow...hahaha.  I have streesed about this weekend more that I ever have.  I don't know why.   Oh well, it is here and the truck is loaded. 

I have some school stuff to talk about but I will wait till I have more time. 

I decided last week that we needed a break.  Since the public schools are out for spring break, we are taking the week off also.  I am getting some cleaning done that has needed doing for a long time.  It feels good too.   I have cleaned Jonathan's room, put up some craft stuff, and today I am working on our room.  We have a "bathroom" that isn't a bathroom yet.  It is a storage room and it was getting so cluttered.  I took most of the stuff out, swept and put up a table so I have room to do some other stuff in there.  I have gotten most of the stuff put back in and it is looking so much better.  I can actually get around in there.  LOL.  Now I need to tackle the actual bedroom.  I moved my computer into the living room since it was so cold in the bedroom and now the computer table in the bedroom is full of stuff.  Haha.  That is just the way I am, if there is an empty spot it don't stay empty for long.  Grrr.  I don't like being that way.  Anywho, I will tackle that later since a lady I help called and asked me to come help her today. 

Now, I guess I better get going and see what is in store for the rest of the day.

I had the week off and thought I would get so much done.  NOT!  I ended up with a migraine for 3 days and have just sit/layed around.  Grrrr.  It is finally subsiding and I am getting some bread made for a dinner at the church.  A lady lost her husband after waiting a LONG time for him to get out of jail.  She got to spend the last 6 months with him.  It is so sad.  Anywho, I am trying to get the house back in order and keep up the school work.  It is hard to stick with a schedule when you don't feel like being on one at all.  Oh, I am not saying all this to feel sorry for myself.  Just blabbering. 

Good news, Good news....uh....yes.  I went to a book study today.  It was based on the book, "Get Out of That Pit, Straight Talk About God's Deliverance",  by Beth Moore.  Interesting.  I haven't read the book but I guess I need to.  It sounded like it would be a good read.

Ok, I need to get back to the kitchen. 

We were going out last ight.  Let me explain a little first...When we go out we go about 45 minutes away to feel like we have really been somewhere.  :)  Anywho, we were on the way and Jonathan was counting and he went all the way to 99 and then asked what was next.  LOL.  It was the first time I had heard him count all the way from 1 - 99.  When he got to 69 he skipped to 80 but I told him "70" and he took it from there.  I still thought that was pretty good.  I haven't really "taught" him to count like this.  Just with his math lessons and reading a measuring tape he figured it out.  When I told him that 100 came after 99 he said, "Someday I will learn to skip count by 100."  I told him he could probably do it right now.  I told him 100, 200 and then he went with that to 900.

I think this is one subject he is going to be good at and enjoy.

T ball sign ups are next week.  J will get to play this year.  My SIL and I are going together hoping to get our kids on the same team.  J likes baseball and I do hope he has fun. 

We went last night to my nieces birthday party.  She turned 13.  Man does time fly.  It is hard to believe my brother has a 14 and 13 year old.  We stayed till after midnight singing "karaoke".  We didn't have any accompany music so it wasn't really karaoke.  We found out my sister is a pretty good singer.  One of my nieces friend got up and sang for us and then they sang together.  It was all so fun. 

I have signed up for a few craft markets this year.  I got a notice that here where I live they are going to start a "Market & Music Saturday".  It will be held the 3rd Saturday of May, June and July.  I am excited about this and do hope that it goes well.  It will be a great place to get my soap stuff out into the public more.  I go to one Trade Day once a month but I do need more places to sell.  God is good and he will provide.  I was called the other day about a Show going on at a Mall about 45 minutes from here but when I talked to the lady, she said it cost $300.00.  That is a little out of my price range right now.  I do hope someday I will be able to do it.  So far I have my regular TD monthly, I will be doing the M & M saturdays, I have signed up for two shows in April, one in May and then the later ones in November.  It feels good to be set up for the year.

I guess I better get busy doing something.  I have been sporatic so far, clean a little here, organize a little here, move stuff from here to there...I am working on getting more organized.  I ordered the e-book from the Homeschool estore about organizing.  It is called Organizing 101.  Right now you can get it for free.  Go take a look. 

Ok, I am off...........

We had a pretty good bit of snow today.  I guess around 4 or more inches.  WOW.  That is a lot for around here.  We went out and played a little, I think J and Dad built a little snow man.  I didn't get pictures of that yet.  I guess we had a snow day for school.  I worked this morning and then we went and ate lunch out and when we got home I sit down at the computer and didn't ever get started on school.  J didn't mind though.  He likes when we "take a break". 

Here are a few pictures from the last few months. 

 J had his first dentist appointment and he came out without any cavities.  I was so glad. 

The other is of when we went skating.  J had to make funny faces at the camera. 

We usually write our letter sounds on paper but I decided to have some fun and used flour.

The one with him on the kitchen counter was when I was cleaning and rearranging stuff and he had to climb up there and then posed when I took the picture. 

The other is of the snow today.

This is my 50th Entry.  Wow.  I know lots of people have more, lots more, but for me...I thought when I started this that I more than likely wouldn't keep it up.  That is just the way I am.  But, I enjoy doing this so much.  I like coming and writing my thoughts as if I am the only one going to read them.  I like coming and reading the blogs of my "friends" that I have come across.  I enjoy reading what other homeschoolers are doing and how they are doing it.  It is encouraging and keeps me going. 

I have found one thing bad about homeschooling....  I am addicted to curriculum.  I can't stop looking for stuff for us to use.  And it don't help when I got read a blog and they recommend a site.  I HAVE to go look and end up either buying something or downloading something.  :)

Oh, I guess I should say that J is feeling better today. 

J and I went with my best friend to her farm and then to look at some goats.  J was feeling "not good" on and off while we were gone.  I just thought he was needing to go to the bathroom and wouldn't.  Well, we were almost home and all of a sudden he started loosing his lunch.  It looked more like his breakfast.    We tried to get on home and here he goes again.  I had his jacket and was trying to stop it from getting all over us and then....well, I will save you the gorry details.    We ended up stoping and getting out to save a bigger mess.  And we were just a block from home...

Now J is sleeping.  Hopefully he will be ok tomorrow.

Life has been busy.  Isn't is always?  We had some sick goats for a while that we were having to doctor.  NEVER EVER bring in a sick goat into your herd, always quarantine first!  They all get sick.  LOL.  We learned a lesson!  One went blind in one eye and then the other.  We had the vet out and he gave her injections in her eyes.  Yesterday when I went out to feed I could see her eyes and I could tell she could see a little bit.  Today she is doing even better.  Yippy.  Needless to say we were excited about that.

Now, on to homeschooling.  We have done things a little different this week.  I have tried to be a little more relaxed.  We are using the "...100 easy Lessons" for reading and I am still doing that but have slowed down some.  We do the same lesson several times but not reading the story yet.  I found some other reading material called "Progressive Phonics".  They offer some of the first books for free so I have started with them.   They are little stories that I read a part and then he reads the red words.  He is enjoying something different.  When we are finished reading we take the magnetic letters and spell words with them. 

For math, we have been doing Math U See.  He is learning to count by 5's.  We finished the work pages for this and I wanted him to practice more on it and on skip counting by 2's and 10's so I got the jar of pennies out and we have been practicing counting them. 

I bought some workbooks from the dollar store a while back and we are working in them.  They are the Little People works books.  I bought another one from Wal Mart that helps him practice cutting and pasteing.  He is not really crazy about cutting.  :) 

I am doing crafts at VBS this year.  That should be interesting.  I have about 15-20 minutes to get a craft done with about 25 kids.  Of course I will have some help.  In the past years I have helped with the games at VBS but this year they aren't doing games so I was nominated for crafts.  I THINK I will enjoy it.  My mom is coming in a bit and we are going to prepare craft packs.  Instead of buying the already packaged crafts from the VBS store, I decided to buy each thing and put the packages together myself.  This should save the church about $200 or so.

This week has been wild and unorganized.  Monday I don't even remember what happened...oh yeah, that was the day my friend and I went out and picked up some goats.  Saturday we had went out and picked them out and there was a baby goat that's mother had rejected it.  We brought it home and started feeding it.  She was doing so well, she had started trying to stand up then later that evening, all went down hill and the baby goat died.  This was Jonathan's first experience with death.  He took it pretty hard.  So back to Monday.  We got our goats and while we were there a baby goat came up and the guy that owned all the goats picked it up.  It was so cute.  I handed it to Jonathan and the baby was trying to nibble on his ears and neck.  We ended up buying the baby goat too and brought it home.  It stayed here with us and I feed it and it ate well and it was so fun.  By Wednesday, the goat was doing bad and it ended up dying.  We think it must have had pneumonia because it had a runny nose and it's eyes were matted up.  That was a sad day.  It was very emotional for me.  Now all our other goats have runny noses and watery eyes.  We are giving rounds of antibiotics.  Grrr.  That is what happens when you bring in new goats.  

As for school, we didn't get as much done as I wanted.  It was just such a busy week.  We worked on reading.  He is getting so much better at it.  Math is going well, he really enjoys it.  We have started adding by 100's.  We did skip counting by 10's at the first of the week and he caught on so quick. 

Now tomorrow, I have orders to fill for people wanting soap stuff.  Busy, busy, busy...

The game is called Scattegories. Use the first letter of your name and find words with that letter. The number of letters in your name determines how many people you can tag. Have fun!

What is your name?  Bernice

4 Letter word: Bump

Vehicle: Buick

City:  Baird

Boy's name: Bob

Girl's name:  Brenda

Movie:  Bob the Builder.  LOL

Occupation:  Brick layer

Something you wear: Britches

Celebrity: Bob Barker

Food:  Banana

Something found in a kitchen:  blender

Something found in a bathroom:  Bath tub

Reason for being late: Broke toe

Cartoon Character:  Bob the Builder (again. )

Something you shout:  Boo

Animal:  Bamboo

Body part:  Bottom

Word to describe you.  beautiful (well, my husband says so  :)

Tag list???  Don't know. 

I got this idea from a "friend".    She is sharing a scripture and what it means to her and I thought I would give a try too.  Hope that is ok.  I don't mean to be stealing.  :)

I have been reading in 1 John.  It is all good but this is one scripture that I had to underline...

1 John 3:18

My little children, let us not love in word, neither in tongue; but in deed and in truth.

We should not only tell others we love them but we need to show them by what we do for them.  When I first read this I had to share it with Jonathan.  I told him that he can show love by what he does as in minding and doing what I tell him when I tell him.  Don't know if it sunk in but if I keep telling him and showing examples, he will one day love in deed and in truth.

I was looking thru my blogs from a year ago and read my first post.  It told the reasons I wanted to homeschool.  I think I have better reasons now.  :)

• I want to train my child in the way he should go as an adult. 
• I want his whole day to be Christ centered.   
• Aren't public schools anti-God?  No praying, no God in the Pledge of Allegiance etc. 
• Yes I do what to shelter my child. 

Still looking back...

I have been subscribed to "The Old Schoolhouse" magazine for about a year I guess and I got out my very first issue a week or so ago and I am thinking, "Did I even read this thing?"  I am not remembering very many of the articles.  It is like a new magazine to me.  I am enjoying it and know that I have a few more issues that I probably didn't read.  LOL. 

I am still set up here in the living room on the lap top.  I did get my desktop back and have turned it on once.  I don't know if it is going to work better or not.  The computer Dr. said he couldn't find anything wrong.  He just did a lot of cleaning.???  I am really liking being in here.  It is so much warmer and I can watch J play too.  :)

I have started planning for next year, well for after we finish 100 EZ Lessons.  I am considering do the Pathway Readers.   It looks interesting and it teaches moral and spiritual values.  It is writen by Amish.

Also, I am looking at the Heart of Dakota curriculum.  It looks to be filled with activities and it is Christian based so I like that.  

Right now that is all I have decided.  I looked at some other stuff but so far this is what I am leaning toward.  I am excited to be looking ahead. 

I almost forgot.  Yesterday was my one year anniversay on HomeSchool Blogger.  I have had so much fun.  I have meet a few people who have encouraged me and gave great advice.  Thank you all. 

So much has changed around here at home.  When I first logged on I wasn't even homeschooling yet.  Now we are in full swing and never stopping.  Homeschool forever.   Well, at least till he goes to college, then we will see about that.   LOL.